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Paper[space]

was a survey of contemporary work by east coast artists who use paper not merely as a support for paint or pencil, but as a sculptural medium in its own right. The participating artists all push the boundaries of this highly flexible and readily available material, and prove that paper can be both fragile and resilient. The eight artists selected seize upon the exceptional formal variety that can be achieved with a material we take for granted everyday.

In , an array of techniques and processes are employed to both reference its material properties while questioning the traditional presuppositions of its use. Many play with the ideas associated with paper, such as its use for personal and official communication, such has Dawn Gavin’s use of United States maps as the foundation for her incised pieces or Donna Ruff’s transgressive technique of burning texts, referencing censorship and protest. Other artists look to other uses of paper, such as the traditional art of paper folding in the improvisational installations of Sarah Julig, which not only draw upon the structure and geometry of origami, but also reference the looseness and speed of a child’s craft project. In works that reflect their traditional uses, there is the concept of paper in its service as a carrier of information and language, promoting the development of personal codes and vocabularies; as a useful material for protection and enclosure; or as a reference to traditional associations with both simple and complex craft based processes. For these artists, the choice as a material is an engagement with its already established associations.

Then there is the physical nature of paper itself, and the exploration of its structure, its tensile strength and flexibility. As paper itself has been elevated to a medium of artistic expression, so has the manipulation of paper, whether handmade, manufactured or found. Treating paper as three-dimensional form, many of the artists work either by incising an existing material such as the ephemeral cut pieces by Jin Lee, Hunter Stabler, and Nami Yamamoto; or through a process of building forms through accumulation, seen in the work of Leslie Mutchler, and Natasha Bowdoin.

It is the viewer’s emotional, intellectual and physical experiences with paper that shape our relationship with the material. Thus once one acknowledges their status as paper objects, they are viewed in a completely different context to work created in any other media. The artists presented in all demonstrate a new commitment to creating objects out of this medium and expanding the boundaries from which we understand the properties of paper, thus increasingly defining themselves and their craft by the material they use.

Stemming from an interest of Native American mythology, Natasha Bowdoin’s cut paper installations celebrate the powerful forces of nature and the ways in which fables and legends celebrate the concept of transformation. Her sculptures reflect a form of resistance, in both subject matter and technique, to the forces of technology. Built through layers of intricately cut strips of paper, Bowdoin references animals and nature by combining the physical qualities of multiple and paradoxical creatures and objects into fantastical new forms.

Working with visual documents such as maps and passports, Dawn Gavin dissects their content, thus altering their structure and meaning into a new personal narrative. Questioning the fixed meanings of such tools and their metonymic relationship to the objects in which they represent, Gavin suggests alternative ways in which to construct the purpose and content of the things that give meaning and structure to daily life. Gavin states, “Despite apparent clear purpose and directed usage, documents such as maps and passports embody ulterior structures of power and interrelationships within which we are all equally bound. This material is then literally dislocated, both spatially and temporally, in such a way as to subvert its original modus and offer alternate interpretations. What is removed in the process is ultimately as present as what is perceived in the finished work.”

Sarah Julig (Brooklyn, NY)
The works by Sarah Julig included in are an extension of a previous body of work consisting of cut and folded paper used to build complex environments that explore the connections between the natural and the human-made world. This series adds a transformative element to her previous works by their ability to expand and collapse, taking on the properties of fluid or the movements of sea creatures such as the jellyfish. As Julig states about her influences, ”Nature, fractal geometry, mysticism, architecture, traditional paper crafts, and science fiction…my interest lies in combining things that are in opposition.” The resulting architectural forms both confirm and negate their structure as they flow from floor to ceiling.

Jin Lee’s elegant installations emphasize the ephemeral nature of paper, alluding to the vulnerability of the material itself. Lee cuts the paper leaving only hand-drawn lines, thereby negating the background of the original surface. When installed, layers of lines are placed in a three dimensional arrangement from floor to ceiling, allowing what was once two dimensional to expand into a sculptural form. Her inspiration lies in nature itself, stating “My work is an act on (see)ding. I make countless tiny dots and lines in repetition. . . it sprouts and becomes various kinds of lines and forms. And it gives birth to another dot, which is full of energy—becoming, growing, moving, mutating, and multiplying.”

Leslie Mutchler’s installation is based on paper pulping newsprint and recasting the forms as building blocks for a larger scale sculptural form. Loosely based on the toy design of Charles Eames House of Cards (1952),each card contains slots in which to create a monumental form. The installations result from Mutchler’s interest in collecting everyday items, such a newspaper, and reorganizing and stacking individual elements into human-scale architectural pieces. As Mutchler states, “It is the repetitive nature of this order and the beauty that emanates from simplified and functional forms that engages me.”

Donna Ruff creates elegant lace like patterns through the process of burning paper or pages of text from books. Referencing the history of burning subversive texts, Ruff suggests that this deductive act is actually one of veneration because the precision and intricacy of the burnt form. Ruff states, “Burning the paper in a kind of scarification process feels ritualistic as well as it feels transgressive, but it is done with such care and exactitude that it feels like an act of affection.”

With an interest in pattern and lattice work, Hunter Stabler’s intricate cutout forms contain both discernable as well as abstract images. Without narrative or specific meaning, Stabler desires for his work to be purely a “retinal experience” that parallels the flat nature of the forms that he develops. Stabler cites a plethora sources for his work such as “synaesthesia, baroque architecture and design, ancient eastern pattern-oriented design (rugs, tapestries, lattices, tile), cymatics, symmetry, self-similar plant growth, interference patterns, vibrations, vortexes, war, war-machines, mysticism, divine and religious art, and symbols and themes of good and evil.”

Nami Yamamoto’s most recent project radiant flux stems from the artists interest in the properties of light and the ability to capture light within the object itself. Using paper painted with light sensitive material, Yamamoto cuts forms resembling several different kinds of plants and leaves and organizes them as if in a scientific horticultural display. Yamamoto states “Borrowing from the process that enables plants to survive, this light collector synthesizes light with minerals to store and absorb light. Only in the absence of light does the evidence of this former light become apparent and visible, illuminating the space with the glow of its pale memory.”